This Statement of Administration Policy provides the Administration's views
on the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill,
FY 2001, as approved by the House Committee. As the Committee develops its
version of the bill, your consideration of the Administration's views would
be appreciated.

The President's FY 2001 Budget is based on a balanced approach that
maintains fiscal discipline, eliminates the national debt, extends the
solvency of Social Security and Medicare, provides for an appropriately
sized tax cut, establishes a new voluntary Medicare prescription drug
benefit in the context of broader reforms, expands health care coverage to
more families, and funds critical investments for our future. An essential
element of this approach is ensuring adequate funding for discretionary
programs. To this end, the President has proposed discretionary spending
limits at levels that we believe are necessary to serve the American
people.

Unfortunately, the FY 2001 congressional budget resolution provides
inadequate resources for discretionary investments. We need realistic
levels of funding for critical government functions that the American
people expect their government to perform well, including education,
national security, law enforcement, environmental protection, natural
resource conservation, preservation of our global leadership, air safety,
food safety, economic assistance for the less fortunate, research and
technology, and the administration of Social Security and Medicare. Based
on the inadequate budget resolution, this bill fails to address critical
needs of the American people.

The Administration appreciates the efforts by the Committee to accommodate
a part of the President's priorities within the 302(b) allocation, such as
increased funding over the FY 2000 enacted levels for national park and
other land management operations. However, the allocation is simply
insufficient to make the necessary investments in programs funded by this
bill. As a result, the bill severely underfunds the President's Lands
Legacy Initiative, the Native American Initiative, the Clean Water Action
Plan, programs for clean and efficient energy, the National Foundation on
the Arts and Humanities, and other critical programs discussed below. The
bill also includes several legislative riders that are highly objectionable
to the Administration, such as provisions concerning the Interior Columbia
Basin Ecosystem Management Project, and the prohibition of funding for the
management of or planning related to national monuments designated by the
President and a prohibition on establishing two new wildlife refuges. The
Committee's failure to fund key programs sufficiently and its inclusion of
damaging riders would lead the President's senior advisors to recommend a
veto if the bill were presented to the President in its current form.

Below is a discussion of our specific concerns with the Committee mark-up.
We look forward to working with the Committee to resolve these concerns as
the bill moves forward.

Objectionable Legislative Riders

The Administration strongly opposes the environmental and other
authorization provisions in the Committee bill, which are inappropriate for
inclusion in an appropriations act. Such riders rarely receive the level
of congressional and public review required of authorization language, and
they often override existing environmental and natural resource
protections.

The Administration believes that the following are among the most
objectionable provisions.

National Monument Designation (Sec. 335). This rider would
undermine long-standing Presidential authority by denying funds for any
national monuments designated after 1999. It represents a back-door
attempt to nullify nine recent designations, which the American public has
strongly endorsed, and to prevent the President from moving decisively in
the future to protect and preserve other sites for future generations.

Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project (ICBEMP) (Sec.
334). This provision would unnecessarily block ICBEMP completion,
after seven years of work and approximately $50 million invested in
scientific analyses and public hearings. The rider would halt the
improvement in Federal land management in the Columbia River Basin
designed to protect rangeland, forestland, wildlife, and fish habitat.

Prohibit Establishment of Two National Wildlife Refuges (Secs. 119
and 122). By preventing the use of funds to establish new
National Wildlife Refuges on the Kankakee River in Illinois and
Indiana, and in the Yolo Bypass of the San Francisco Bay in
California, these provisions would infringe on the Interior
Department's ability under current law to protect and preserve
migratory birds and endangered species. The Fish and Wildlife Service
is working on both of these proposals with the Army Corps of Engineers
and many State and local groups.

American Heritage Rivers (Sec. 327). The provision would
diminish opportunities for inter-agency coordination and cooperation,
thereby preventing the participating Federal agencies funded in this
bill from offering the most effective assistance to river communities
throughout the country.

Kyoto Protocol (Sec. 330). This section purports to prohibit
Federal agencies funded in this bill from implementing the Kyoto
Protocol. It is unnecessary, as the Administration has no intent to
implement the Protocol prior to congressional ratification. To the
extent this language might reach expenditures for negotiations with
foreign governments, it would raise serious constitutional concerns,
because the Constitution commits to the President the power to decide
whether to engage in such negotiations.

Tribal Contract Moratorium (Sec. 331). The House would again
place a one-year moratorium on the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the
Indian Health Service from entering into new or expanded
self-determination contracts, grants, or compacts with Tribes. This
provision would interfere with the long-standing objective of tribal
self-determination and self-governance and would be contrary to the
government-to-government policy the Federal Government has with
Tribes. A moratorium provision was introduced in the Senate in FY
2000, but later dropped during final negotiations.

Grazing Permits (Sec. 116). This rider would automatically
extend for up to 10 years any permit to graze livestock on public
lands that expires in FY 2001, unless the Interior Secretary has
completed environmental reviews under the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA). There is no demonstrated need for this provision,
because the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will complete in FY 2001
the processing of all permits scheduled to expire in that fiscal year.
This provision would give an incentive for grazing operations with a
poor environmental record to delay processing compliance in hopes of
winning an automatic renewal.

Wilderness Inventories. House Committee report language would
deny funds for any additional wilderness reinventory activities unless
the Interior Department requests a reprogramming for such funds.
Interior regularly does such inventories as part of its base
wilderness management program. Although the report language is
ambiguous and unclear, it could have the effect of undoing existing
authority to conduct such activities.

Infringement on Executive Authority. The Administration objects
to a number of provisions in the bill that would require congressional
approval before Executive Branch execution. The Administration will
interpret these provisions to require only notification of Congress,
since any other interpretation would contradict the Supreme Court
ruling in INS v. Chadha.

The Administration urges the Committee to report a clean bill that does not
attempt to roll back environmental protections or tribal policies, benefit
special interests, or circumvent authorization or administrative procedures
by attaching riders to appropriations bills.

Lands Legacy Initiative/Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)

The Administration strongly opposes the Committee decisions not to fund
major portions of the President's Lands Legacy Initiative. Such reductions
are unacceptable. The FY 2001 congressional budget resolution has placed
these important conservation programs in jeopardy by rejecting the
Administration's request for a dedicated funding stream. The Committee has
followed with an insufficient overall funding level for the initiative that
represents a 75-percent cut to the Administration's request and a
56-percent reduction from the FY 2000 enacted level. These reductions
would undermine Federal land conservation efforts to protect national
treasures, such as the Everglades, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail,
California Desert, Lake Tahoe Basin, Giant Sequoia groves, Silver Mountain
tundra, Colorado Sand Dunes, and various Civil War Battlefields. State and
community conservation efforts would also suffer due to inadequate Federal
support for State and local programs to acquire and protect
environmentally-sensitive lands, enhance forests and wildlife habitat,
promote urban forests and outdoor recreation, and address sprawl. These
reductions would foreclose opportunities to protect State and regional
priority locations, such as the great Northern Forests, that are vulnerable
to development pressures. It would be short-sighted not to provide
adequate support for the important Lands Legacy Initiative, given the
bipartisan recognition of the need for the Federal Government, the States,
Tribes, and other groups to protect open spaces and preserve America's
great places.

Department of Energy

The Administration strongly opposes the Committee's decision to underfund
critical programs at the Department of Energy to enhance our energy
efficiency. The Committee funds these programs at a level below even last
year's level and $120 million below the President's request. Particularly
at this time of increased focus on our energy security and energy
infrastructure, it would be irresponsible for the Congress not to
adequately fund this important part of the Administration's energy policy.
The important breakthroughs in energy efficiency technologies and practices
that these programs support will help make America more energy independent,
enhance reliability, and save money for businesses and consumers. Examples
of important programs seriously affected include efforts to increase the
energy efficiency of vehicles and home weatherization assistance to help
reduce energy bills for low-income households.

In the past several years, the Committee has repeatedly attempted to mask
dramatic cuts below the Administration's budget for energy conservation by
moving programs between the Fossil Energy R&D and Energy Conservation
accounts. This year, the Committee is proposing to merge those two
accounts completely. Such a merger would make budgeting and financial
management more difficult and appears primarily intended to mask once again
severe cuts to the Energy Conservation request. The Administration opposes
the merger of these accounts.

The Administration strongly opposes an amendment that we understand may be
offered that would eliminate funding for the Partnership for a New
Generation of Vehicles (PNGV). PNGV is a model public-private partnership
committed to developing a significantly more fuel efficient vehicle than
the industry would develop on its own, protecting the environment, saving
consumers money, and enhancing energy security. In fact, the termination
of this funding would eliminate some activities that Congress has supported
for over a decade.

Native American Programs

The Administration appreciates the Committee's continued support for Indian
trust funds management improvements but is concerned over the Committee's
limited allocations for critical Native American programs. Although the
Committee provides a modest $18 million increase over the FY 2000 enacted
level for the operations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), this level
is simply inadequate to fund the current level of services and undercuts
the Administration's Government-wide Native American Programs Initiative.
Of particular concern is the Committee's decision to reduce funding for BIA
construction $13 million below the FY 2000 enacted level and $182 million
below the President's request. The Committee's funding reduction would
seriously undercut BIA's ongoing efforts to maintain safe schools, provide
enhanced educational opportunities for nearly 50,000 Indian children,
improve school accountability and performance, strengthen tribal college
operations, improve public safety throughout Indian Country, and assist in
improving quality of life on reservations through the housing improvement
and road maintenance programs. The Administration urges the Committee to
support the Native American Programs Initiative.

The Administration is very concerned that the Committee has significantly
underfunded health care services to Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
Native Americans continue to experience health disparities -- mortality
rates for alcoholism, tuberculosis, diabetes, and accidents are all more
than three times higher for Indian people than they are for all Americans.
The Indian Health Service (IHS) finances access to health care for 1.5
million Native Americans. The Committee has included only $30 million of
the $230 million increase requested to improve access to health care for
Native Americans. The President's FY 2001 Budget proposes to support an
additional 1,460 hospitals days and 57,200 additional visits to doctors and
dentists purchased from the private sector through Contract Health
Services. The budget also seeks increased support for tribally-operated
facilities and services for diabetes, cancer, heart diseases, emergency
medical services, and dental and mental health. The Committee allocation
would force IHS to absorb anticipated cost increases in FY 2001 and cause a
further reduction in health services.

Clean Water Action Plan

The Administration is concerned with reductions to other key programs,
including Clean Water Action Plan (CWAP). Such reductions would halt the
substantial progress made to date in improving water quality and watershed
health. Efforts to improve or restore over 11,000 miles of stream corridor
by FY 2005, accelerate range allotment planning, and clean up miles of
polluted streams caused by past coal mining practices under the
Administration's Appalachian Clean Stream Initiative would be in jeopardy.
Further, the reductions in science assistance to Federal, State, and local
agencies would hinder efforts to assess water quality and meet
responsibilities for water quality protection. Similarly, the decrease in
Forest Service CWAP funding would dramatically affect road maintenance and
decommissioning, rangeland vegetation management, fish habitat and wildlife
inventory and monitoring activities, watershed improvements, and the
Stewardship Incentive Program.

Land Management Operations

The Administration commends the Committee for taking steps to address some
operational and maintenance needs of land management agencies in the
Department of the Interior and the Forest Service in the Department of
Agriculture. The funding levels provided, however, still fail to address
adequately many priority maintenance and operational needs identified in
the President's budget, including the Forest Service recreation and tourism
initiative, the National Park Service's Natural Resource Challenge, Fish
and Wildlife Service law enforcement, and BLM management of the Headwaters
Forest and other specially designated areas.

In addition, by failing to include the requested funds for forest planning,
the bill would contribute to the backlog of land management plans needing
revision and prevent the Forest Service from integrating current science
and public priorities into forest plans. Species inventory and monitoring
funding would be reduced by 27 percent from the President's budget. This
reduction could undermine the credibility and legal defensibility of
natural resource projects that provide goods and services to the American
people. Furthermore, adequate funding for survey and manage activities, a
requirement for most projects in the Pacific Northwest, has not been
incorporated.

The bill funds forest products at a level of $25 million, or eleven
percent, above the request, at the expense of the wildlife management and
ecosystem planning programs. The Administration urges the Committee to
redirect unrequested funds to these high priority programs.

Construction Priorities

The Administration commends the Committee for directing most construction
funds towards agency priorities. Unfortunately, the Committee's allocation
is insufficient to maintain existing facilities, such as Indian schools and
park historic structures, or to address new responsibilities, such as the
National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The Administration urges the
House to provide additional funds to support the construction, major
repair, and rehabilitation projects identified in the agencies' five-year
priority lists.

Millennium Initiative to Save America's Treasures

The Administration objects to the Committee decision not to fund the $30
million Presidential initiative to commemorate the Millennium by preserving
the Nation's historic sites and cultural artifacts that are America's
treasures. We urge the Committee to restore funding for this highly
successful program.

U.S. Territory Programs

The Administration objects to the Committee's decision not to provide the
full $10 million reimbursement to Guam for costs imposed upon it by the
U.S. Compact of Free Association with the Micronesian nations. The
territorial government is incurring significant health, education, and
other costs in providing essential services to citizens of the nations
living in Guam by virtue of the compact. In addition, the Administration
is disappointed that the Committee has refused to support the proposed $10
million advance appropriation for the Virgin Islands. This funding would
provide the fiscally hard-pressed territorial government with needed aid
and an incentive to continue reforming its budget practices.

National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities

The Administration strongly objects to the Committee-proposed funding
levels for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute for Museum and
Library Services (IMLS). The Committee freezes these important cultural
programs at their FY 2000 enacted level. This level would prevent NEA from
moving forward with its Challenge America program to support, directly or
in partnership with States, arts education and access to the arts in
thousands of under-served communities throughout the country. NEH would
not be able to expand its summer seminar series to provide professional
development opportunities to our Nation's teachers, nor broaden the reach
of its Rediscover America initiative to bring the humanities to more
communities nationwide. IMLS would be precluded from moving forward on
digitization efforts, and from expanding after-school programs in museums
and on-line access to museums. We urge the Committee to provide the
Administration's request for these important cultural, educational, and
artistic programs for communities across America. The Administration
supports an amendment expected to be offered to increase funding for NEA
and NEH.

Smithsonian and Other Cultural Agencies

The Committee's $423 million overall funding level for the Smithsonian,
which is $40 million less than the Administration's request and $15 million
below the FY 2000 enacted level, would prevent the Institution from
addressing critical repair and restoration needs. The National Gallery of
Art and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum have similar maintenance needs
and should be funded at the President's requested levels. The
Administration seeks to preserve and protect our Nation's treasures, as
well as to provide safe and continued access to the public, and will work
with the Committee to fund these important programs.

The Administration is concerned that the Committee provides no funding for
continued operation of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe,
New Mexico, and cuts nearly in half the $15 million request for the Office
of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation. We urge the Committee to fund the
new $1 million District of Columbia Arts and Education Grants program
within the Commission of Fine Arts, which is a community-based arts
education program that will provide training and exposure in the arts to
under-served young people and reinforce the importance of the arts as basic
to education.